Cinnamon Teal and a Photoshop Quiz

[Doug Brown]

Here's a nice Cinnamon Teal flight shot from my recent So. Cal. trip. The image as captured had a significant issue that I corrected in PS. Can any of you eagle-eyed Photoshop detectives figure out how I doctored the frame?

Canon 1Dx, 600mm II + 1.4x III, f/6.3, 1/1600, ISO 500, manual exposure, hand held

[Luis Patacao]

I`m not that expert in photoshop so i can`t tell what was "corrected", but i can say that i really like the image, the wing position, the light and the colors!

[Bob Serling]

I too am just starting to learn about PS and have not used it yet. But if I had to guess, I'd say this is really a Mallard with a cloned head. Just kidding - is it work to make the eye pop?

Beautiful shot, by the way. You couldn't ask for better wing position.

[Jonathan Ashton]

Lovely image great pose colours and detail. Absolutely no idea what you have done out of the ordinary ....... but I do keep looking at the position of the eye!

[Joseph Przybyla]

Nice image, beautiful bird that I have yet to capture. If I am forced to guess what you corrected my answer would be the wing nearest the viewer showing the underside. From about one half way up the wing the focus changes and there is a darkened feather that does not match the exposure of the others (that feather appears to be in a shadow).

[Dan Brown]

Great shot, Doug. I'd say that you had to replace his eye due to a nictitating membrane, as the lower edge of the eye looks a little too close to the eyeball? Just guessing!

[dankearl]

I really can't tell what you fixed.
I will say that although it is a fine shot, I am surprised by your low ISO and SS.
1/1600 is not fast enough for ducks in flight I don't think and the wing blur, while fine,
results from that I think.

[arash_hazeghi]

Hey Doug,
nice wing position, it doesn't look as sharp as your other files to me. did you try to remove some motion blur or something like that?

[Doug Brown]

I will say that although it is a fine shot, I am surprised by your low ISO and SS.
1/1600 is not fast enough for ducks in flight I don't think and the wing blur, while fine,
results from that I think.

Good point Dan. I was alternating between 1/2500 for lighter birds and 1/1600 for darker birds that morning. When the Cinnamon Teal flew by, I did a quick exposure adjustment as I was raising the camera up to my eye. Shutter speed was the easiest way to get 2/3 stop as my aperture was only 1/3 stop away from wide open.

[Doug Brown]

Hey Doug,
nice wing position, it doesn't look as sharp as your other files to me. did you try to remove some motion blur or something like that?

Here's a version with a little more sharpening, but the original is pretty sharp. I was not trying to remove any blur.

[douglas hayes]

My teal, an early morning shot, are a different shade of cinnamon and the blue wing patch a bit richer-interesting. My guess on yr edit is sometimes the top of the head is overexposed and you rebuilt it.

[Doug Brown]

Lots of good guesses, but no one has gotten it right yet.

[John Robinson]

Don't use PS so no idea. Maybe something in th background Nice shot any way unless there was a big rebuild done in which case I wouldn't be too keen . Surprised nopixelpeeps have cracked it whatever.
Cheers
John

[Jim Crosswell]

Beautiful image Doug! I see a little white line just under the duck above the words, PS. Can , in the description in your original post. It could be something in the water but I don't see it anywhere else in the BG. Did you do some work in this area?

[Geoffrey Montagu]

Just below the ducks belly are two very faint white horizontal smudges. Beautiful image.

Geoffrey

[Geoffrey Montagu]

P.S. Wrote my response before I read John's answer.

[Doug Brown]

Beautiful image Doug! I see a little white line just under the duck above the words, PS. Can , in the description in your original post. It could be something in the water but I don't see it anywhere else in the BG. Did you do some work in this area?

You might be onto something Jim!

[Loi Nguyen]

Lovely image to me Doug. I'd just a wild guess that you added canvas, but I saw no evidence of that, just a wild guess. TFS. Loi

[Jim Crosswell]

I am going to have to guess that the duck was at the bottom of the frame and you may have clipped the tip of the tail. If so the canvas extension works well for the composition.

[Miguel Palaviccini]

What do I get if I "guess" right? haha. It's not noticeable in this frame at all, and I know what you did. Looks great to me!

[James Salywoda]

Near Wing Tip (Making) Cloning...... Sweet Shot!

[Derek Willcox]

nice work Doug nice eye contact and pose did you use content aware scale to pull the teal closer to the right

[Richard Flack]

Stunning image Doug

[Doug Brown]

Thanks everyone for participating, and I hope you had a little fun playing detective! Jim and Geoffrey were the closest. I photographed a nice sequence of frames of this Cinnamon Teal flying right past me; wings up, wings down, all frames tack sharp. There was only one little problem; there was another Teal flying in front of my subject in every single frame! I liked the maximum wings-up flight pose in this shot, but the second Teal was blocking a portion of Teal number one. Here's what the original looked like.

[Doug Brown]

I simply borrowed the tail from a different frame and blended it into this bird. This image to be precise.

[Doug Brown]

I thought this would be a fun exercise, but I don't advocate major corrective surgery like this. If you do decide to do some serious plastic surgery, please disclose it when you post your images. Hope you all have a great weekend! Looking forward to a Broncos-Niners Superbowl!!!

[Bill Dix]

Lovely flight image, although I agree that some SS would have helped. I could not find any evidence of PP surgery until I saw your repost. Very well done.

[David Salem]

Great shot Doug and I like the wings up pose. The sharpening helped and the exposure looks great. Was busy yesterday so I didnt see this fun post but I knew the answer. Nice PS work, never would know.

[Sidharth Kodikal]

Excellent flight angle and techs, Doug. Great job with the surgery. I wouldn't have known. Did it feel strange doing this major surgery without administering anaesthesia?

[Doug Brown]

Excellent flight angle and techs, Doug. Great job with the surgery. I wouldn't have known. Did it feel strange doing this major surgery without administering anaesthesia?

Good one!

[Henry Domke]

Lots of good guesses, but no one has gotten it right yet.

I'm guessing that you colorized the background by adding blue.
But I really have no clue...

[Marina Scarr]

That was an aweful lot of fun, Doug, and boy what a great PS surgery you performed. Don't you just hate it when you are photographing a super bird doing something awesome and another drab bird gets in the way. Really a super flight image.

[Doug Brown]

Thanks everyone for participating in this most enjoyable thread!